Media social enterprises in Scotland may be on a vastly smaller scale, but the business models can work just the same.
Just like the rest of Planet Earth (and maybe beyond), Scotland has fallen in love with Facebook. The reach of the social network has penetrated communities across the country – around half the population is signed up.
Facebook is in the Scottish media regularly. There are the good news stories, like the victim of mugging who tracked down two of his attackers by rifling through Facebook photos, or the gang of dog-nappers who stole a prized shih tzu and were brought to justice by a Facebook campaign.
Of course, we've had our fair share of Facebook controversies too. The Guardian reported on the boy in Glasgow who was arrested for allegedly inciting violence on Facebook after inviting friends to copy rioting in England. There was also the Facebook page banned after showing Celtic boss Neil Lennon riddled with bullets as a "dead man walking".
People in Scotland often use social and new media for good. While there's still much room for growth, we're swimming in media-related social enterprises, including all those other social businesses using the internet and media to empower communities. They may be providing for slightly less than the projected 1 billion Facebook users, but the point is not just about size and scale – it's about business models and innovation.
We've got Popinjay social media marketing, media co-op, Institute of Local Television, Fablevision Studios media production, employee-owned West Highland Free Press newspaper and Specialisterne Scotland for software testing and web development. We also have With People providing community websites, Haywired IT Centre providing free community training and public access to IT and ReBOOT computer recycling. It could be suggested that with a history of connected communities and co-operative businesses, that social media in Scotland is simply a natural extension of that shared community culture.
Certainly Facebook, like any private business, could easily convert to the good ship social enterprise. A charitable foundation could be created that develops global digital inclusion, recycled IT equipment for the developing world or facilitates community ownership of local media – then gives the company profits to this charity. Simple.
Facebook could become a mutual or co-op – owned by users or members. It could specialise in healthcare for impoverished Americans or affordable housing in the Middle East. At the same time, it could employ people excluded from the job market and also improve its environmental impact. Like Facebook, social enterprise cuts across boundaries, cultures and industries worldwide: the options are endless.
Facebook could certainly learn media lessons from The Wikimedia Foundation that operates Wikipedia as a non-profit charitable organisation "dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content" or, indeed, from the trust that looks after The Guardian newspaper.
And the funny thing is that this would fit exactly with the stated aims of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg himself, that "Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission." That mission is apparently to make the world more open and connected and to "Give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future." Perfect.
But let's face it, those using Facebook are not actually users but are, in fact, the products – without a voice and without ownership. They're not even customers. A conversion to some form of social enterprise would be a wee slice of social fairness, aiming to tackle the disease of "power without responsibility" that the social network suffers from.
In Scotland, we have the successful Acquiring Business 4 Good (AB4G) programme that's been training and leading social enterprises to take over private sector businesses and make them part of the social business family. I'm not suggesting that a social enterprise anywhere would have the capacity to buy Facebook, even a mighty social enterprise such as Mondragon, the Basque co-op, couldn't do that (well, in fantasyland, in a multinational consortium with the Co-operative Group and a few others?). But again it's not the scale that matters – the principle of the business model is the same.
Of course, the powers at work in and around the world's most influential social network would be horrified to consider giving the profit to communities instead of rich shareholders. It's unlikely that such a suggestion would ever take hold. But it's reached a point where the influence of Facebook is so vast that democracy isn't just a nice, desirable idea – it's getting to be a necessity.
Oh, and if this suggestion means my Facebook account suddenly gets deleted or I "disappear", at least you'll know what's happened.
*Love you Facebook*.
Duncan Thorp is parliamentary, policy and communications officer at Social Enterprise Scotland
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